This morning we’ll head northwest toward Popayán, stopping at the Parque Nacional Natural Puracé, which lies within the territory of the Puracé indigenous people and is a geothermal land of waterfalls and a snow-capped, inactive volcano.
We’ll arrive in Popayán, known as the “White City” due to its chalk-white buildings, and check into the Hotel Dann Monasterio.
This graceful colonial town, located at the midpoint in the journey that gold would make between Lima, Peru; Quito, Ecuador; and the Colombian port of Cartagena on the Caribbean on its way to Spain. Its historic center is one of the most beautiful and well-preserved in Colombia. We’ll admire Popayán’s stunning churches, which were built in the 17th and 18th centuries.
We’ll end the day with a meeting with a local woman who is working to ensure that the indigenous communities in the region have their rights recognized by the government.
